Europe

Ignitis Grupe, the state-owned Lithuanian energy and utility company, has filed IPO paperwork in preparation for a listing in Vilinus and London.

Tatjana Greil Castro has been promoted to co-head of public markets at Muzinich an investor in corporate credit.

Bankia and CaixaBank have opened a new chapter in Spanish bank consolidation, having announced that they are undergoing preliminary discussions about a merger. Analysts welcomed the development and believe that it will mark an important test for consolidation in the Spanish banking sector.

DNB Boligkreditt did not waste any time waiting to tap its covered bond first issued last week, raising a further Skr500m on Thursday in order to capitalise on the attractiveness of the Swedish krona compared with other currencies.

Caisse d’Amortissement de la Dette Sociale (Cades) has mandate a pair of banks to help it structure its new social bond programme.

German real estate company Vonovia priced a €1bn accelerated capital raise on Thursday to take advantage of possible growth opportunities arising from the Covid-19 pandemic. The deal was covered quickly and attracted enough demand to cover the transaction several times but execution was made complicated by a sell-off in US tech stocks on Thursday evening.

The National Bank of Ukraine’s (NBU) decision to maintain interest rates against pressure to cut them was not enough reassurance for analysts worried about the broader reform agenda in the country. As the saga continues surrounding the ownership of one of its banks rumbles on, a number of obstacles stand in Ukraine’s path to recovery.

Ryanair completed a non-pre-emptive share placing on Thursday evening to strengthen its balance sheet to withstand the next phase of the Covid-19 pandemic and to take advantage of growth opportunities. Despite analysts not thinking the company needed extra capital, sources said the company's CEO Michael O'Leary made a compelling case to investors for the need to boost its balance sheet.

Green bonds are becoming the rule, rather than the exception, for Europe’s sovereigns with two more debuts this week. Covid-19 has delayed others from entering the market but the instruments are now well and truly part of mainstream capital markets infrastructure and another country is even setting up for a sustainability bond.

Rating: Aaa/AAA/AAA

Market observers believe that investors in open-ended debt funds need to be disincentivised more than they are at present from scrambling to liquidate their holdings in a market downturn.

Norilsk Nickel, the Russian metal and mining company, was set to issue a benchmark dollar bond on Thursday evening, just months after it was found responsible for a series of major diesel spills.